News

ADAPT Receives DoD Funds for Cooperative Industry Research

Originally posted on Mines Newsroom on Feb. 20, 2019.

The Alliance for the Development of Additive Processing Technologies (ADAPT^SM) at Colorado School of Mines is collaborating with three industry partners on new research into advanced manufacturing for military applications.

ADAPT has been awarded Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grants from the U.S. Department of Defense to conduct cooperative research with ADAPT members Citrine Informatics and Elementum 3D, as well as Boulder-based Special Aerospace Services (SAS).

The funded projects include 3D printing of rocket nozzles, a materials informatics framework to predict the effects of additive manufacturing defects and the development of new steels that soldiers could easily print with in the theater of war.

“ADAPT is especially excited about these successes in the STTR programs, as economic development centered around the U.S. manufacturing supply chain motivates the core mission of ADAPT, given our incubation by the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade and continued support from the Department of Defense’s Office of Economic Adjustment,” said Aaron Stebner, executive director of ADAPT and Rowlinson Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Mines. “These programs demonstrate the funding philosophy of ADAPT— to create a bigger pie for both the academic and industry researchers. The success doing this with our small businesses shows our commitment to transitioning the research findings into new technologies and businesses that meet our nation’s modern manufacturing needs.”

The three projects, each led by the industry partner, are:

“An Integrated Materials Informatics/Sequential Learning Framework to Predict the Effects of Defects in Metals Additive Manufacturing,” led by Citrine Informatics and funded through the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA)
“Microstructure Engineering to Optimize Graded Material Properties of Turbopump Components Through Local Manipulation of Additive Manufacture Build Parameters,” led by SAS and funded by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL)
“Design of Easy-to-Use Structural Alloy Feedstocks for Additive Manufacturing,” led by Elementum 3D, a Mines alumni-owned company, and funded through the Army Research Office (ARO)

Each project has been awarded Phase I contracts of $150,000 to prove the proposed concepts. Upon successful demonstration of the ideas, the grants may be extended for three additional years at $1.5 million each, to be shared between Mines and the companies.

The STTR program encourages small businesses and universities to work together to develop new technologies that support the nation’s needs. The DoD is one of five federal agencies that currently participates in STTR. The others are the Department of Energy, Department of Health and Human Services, NASA and the National Science Foundation.

CONTACT
Emilie Rusch, Public Information Specialist, Communications and Marketing | 303-273-3361 | erusch@mines.edu
Mark Ramirez, Managing Editor, Communications and Marketing | 303-273-3088 | ramirez@mines.edu

ADAPT Member Lithoz Installs Ceramics Printer at Mines

Lithoz assists with ceramic printer install at Colorado School of Mines

Golden, CO – The Alliance for the Development of Additive Processing Technologies (ADAPT^SM), an industry-academia consortium that advances data informatics and advanced characterization technologies to Optimize for Additive^SM, welcomes new member Lithoz, the world leader in development and production of ceramic materials and additive manufacturing (AM) systems.

Lithoz connected with ADAPT through a research collaboration with Professors Corinne Packard and Geoff Brennecka at Colorado School of Mines. Mines is currently investigating mechanical properties of ceramics produced by lithography-based ceramic manufacturing (LCM) with graduate student Sarah Sortedahl with the intent of exploring whether separate standards are needed for ceramic AM.

“The mechanical properties of ceramics are highly sensitive to material or manufacturing flaws,” said Professor Packard. “Working with Lithoz directly, and having a CeraFab 7500 printer here at Mines, allows us to rapidly evaluate and optimize processes for achieving strength and reliability in AM ceramics.”

“Ceramic additive manufacturing is particularly suited to aerospace and biomedical applications. The representation of these markets in ADAPT’s membership makes Mines and ADAPT a natural partnership. This partnership allowed us to install one of our ceramic printers in a Mines lab. There, it is being used for research and courses focused on AM technology and design for AM,” said Shawn Allan, VP of Lithoz America. “We are excited to see the student research projects that result from this new capability. We also hope to leverage resources such as ADAPT’s Citrination database to improve the utilization and learning that can be achieved with the vast amount of data generated in the LCM process.”

“The Lithoz membership in ADAPT formally marks our commitment to expand ADAPT’s research mission to all solid materials, beyond the alloys focus we had in our first few years,” said ADAPT Executive Director Aaron Stebner.

About Lithoz
Lithoz is the world leader in development and production of ceramic materials and additive manufacturing systems. Ceramics produced with these systems meet the highest demands of industry especially in terms of density, strength and precision. Lithoz was founded in Vienna, Austria, in 2011 based upon research from Vienna University of Technology. Lithoz America was founded in 2017 to support the North American ceramic industry. Learn more at http://www.lithoz.com/en.

About ADAPT
The Alliance for the Development of Additive Processing Technologies (ADAPT) is an industry-academia consortium dedicated to solving challenges in additive manufacturing (AM) using data-driven approaches. Headquartered at Colorado School of Mines, ADAPT was launched in December 2015 with funding from the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT). Founding members include Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Citrine Informatics, Colorado School of Mines, Faustson Tool, Lockheed Martin and Manufacturer’s Edge. For more information, visit the ADAPT website, or find ADAPT on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

First ADAPT Expo a Success

ADAPT’s first Expo, combined with its Annual Public Meeting on Jan. 7, 2019, drew eight exhibitors and dozens of industry representatives, faculty members and students.

The Expo was held in the CoorsTek atrium on the campus of Colorado School of Mines. Exhibitors included Colorado OEDIT, Citrine Informatics, Elementum 3D, The 3D Printing Store, Lithoz America, GE Additive, ALD NanoSolutions and 3D Systems.

That evening, members and other guests, including State Senator Tammy Story of Colorado Senate District 16, attended a dinner at the student center and a presentation by ADAPT Executive Director Dr. Aaron Stebner and fellow ADAPT board member Dr. Craig Brice.

Together, they gave an in-depth review of ADAPT’s progress over the last three years, as well as its structure and management, economic development and education results, 2018 technical achievements and 2019 outlook. Highlights included:

Growth in membership and research partnerships: In three years, ADAPT grew from 6 founding members to 22 current members and 11 non-member research partners
Faculty and student growth: ADAPT programs have led to 5 permanent faculty hires at Mines to date and increased postdoc and graduate student hires; additional, ADAPT has graduated 1 PhD student and 3 Master of Science students at Mines
Expansion of adapt.citrination: 74 data sets and 11 material-process combinations have been generated in ADAPT’s signature data informatics tool
Presence in the additive community: ADAPT researchers have given more than 30 conference talks and workshops, have published 3 peer-reviewed papers with 6 more pending, and have submitted 4 patent applications
Research impact: ADAPT has helped its research partners realize a 10x ROI by assisting in raising more than $25 million in external funding
Educational impact: Mines has established an Advanced Manufacturing degree program that offers a Professional Graduate Certificate and a Master of Science (non-thesis) degree, along with an AM teaching lab
Collaboration among partners: A recent survey of members indicated that the number one benefit of belonging to ADAPT is the opportunity to collaborate, with networking, workshops and workforce development following close behind
Upcoming ADAPT events include regular monthly members meetings and an Optimize for Additive^SMTechnical Workshop and Expo, August 26-28, at Colorado School of Mines

ADAPT Welcomes Newest Members EOS and ATI

We are excited to welcome new members EOS North America and ATI Specialty Alloys & Components into ADAPT membership!

EOS is a global technology leader for industrial 3D printing of metals and polymers. Founded in 1989, EOS is a pioneer and world leader in the field of direct metal laser sintering (DMLS), and they continue to master the interaction of laser and powder material.

ATI is a global manufacturer of technically advanced specialty materials and complex components. ATI is a market leader in manufacturing differentiated specialty alloys and forgings across industrial sectors. They are also a leader in producing nickel-based alloy and titanium-based alloy powders for use in next-generation jet engine forgings and 3D-printed products.

ADAPT PhD Candidate Nathan Johnson Awarded Fellowship

Nathan Johnson was awarded a fellowship by Los Alamos National Laboratory to study and model rapidly solidifying alloys. The fellowship was awarded for Nathan’s research with the Alliance for the Development of Additive Processing Technologies (ADAPT^SM). Nathan’s work focuses on characterizing the formation of microscopic grains that form as metals solidify. These in situ investigations use techniques such as high-energy X-ray and neutron diffraction to reveal mechanisms and characteristics of grain formation, ultimately determining the mechanical properties of the metal. Measurements made using diffraction will serve as the foundation of statistical models of metal manufacturing processes. Nathan’s work has impact in technologies such as additive manufacturing where complex parts are built layer by layer from small deposits of rapidly solidified alloys.

Member Company 3D Systems Will Hold Open House on Dec. 5

ADAPT^SM member company 3D Systems is hosting an Open House at their Littleton, CO, facility on Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2018. All are welcome. Please register on their website:
https://www.3dsystems.com/events/open-house-2018-Littleton.

Lockheed Martin Presents Case Study for Large-Scale Titanium DED

Stop in and/or stay for the lecture!

Beginning at 4:00 pm on Wednesday, Nov. 14, Brian Rosenberger from Lockheed Martin Aeronautics will be available in the CoorsTek atrium (1523 Illinois St.) along with a large-scale titanium part fabricated using the directed energy deposition (DED) method of additive manufacturing. He will give a lecture at 6:00 pm for the Intro to Additive Manufacturing course – all are welcome to attend. Lecture will be held in CoorsTek atrium.

DED is an emerging use for metal additive manufacturing (AM) as a substitute for die forging of large titanium components. The hybrid process (AM + machining) has the potential to offer significant reductions in both cost and lead time for these components. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company has worked through most of the hurdles to production implementation of this technology, and Mr. Rosenberger will show an example part and describe the engineering development work to date.

Brian Rosenberger has worked in the aerospace industry for over 34 years. He has considerable experience in the aircraft conceptual design arena and has served as principal investigator and program manager for a variety of research and development projects. Since 1997, he has focused his efforts on the maturation of AM processes and materials for aerospace applications. He has extensive experience with large-scale metal AM. Mr. Rosenberger also has expertise in integrating advanced technologies into the supply chain, especially with international production partners. He holds 13 US patents.

ADAPT Welcomes 3D Systems and Lithoz America

The ADAPT^SM Center’s two newest members include 3D Systems and Lithoz America.

3D Systems is a global 3D solutions provider founded in 1983 by Chuck Hull, the inventor of 3D printing. With advanced hardware, software and materials, they offer a full spectrum of services from digitization, design and simulation through manufacturing, inspection and management to customers in diverse industries.

Lithoz specializes in the development and production of materials and additive manufacturing systems for 3D printing high-performance ceramics. Their system produces components that meet the high demands of density, stability and precision required by the ceramics industry and ceramic research.

Earlier this year, ADAPT welcomed into membership Boeing, a leader in aerospace, and ALD NanoSolutions, a Colorado native that specializes in atomic layer deposition. We are excited by our continued growth with companies both big and small across industrial sectors!

Interested in ADAPT membership? Contact us to learn more!

“HIP for AM” Dinner & Learn Hosted by Quintus Technologies

Want to learn how High Pressure Heat Treatment is the enabler for advancements in additive manufacturing technology?

Join us on October 10th at 4:00pm the Table Mountain Inn for a dinner and learn event hosted by Quintus Technologies in partnership with ADAPT and Colorado School of Mines. The Dinner and Learn will include a presentation from Quintus Technologies Application Specialist, Magnus Ahlfors. The presentation will be focused on advanced high-pressure heat treatments used for additively manufactured materials. We look forward to presenting and discussing current post processing and High Pressure Heat Treatment trends in the world of Additive Manufacturing. Topics that will be discussed:

Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP) for Additive Manufacturing
The benefits of HIP and High Pressure Heat Treatment
Real case studies on HIP:ing

The event is free, but registration is required to attend. Space is very limited!

REGSITER

This event is not limited to ADAPT members—please feel free to share this with a colleague!

View the Agenda

View the Event Flyer

Craig Brice Joins Mines to Lead Advanced Manufacturing Program

Reposted from the Mines Newsroom:

An additive manufacturing expert with 20 years of industry and research experience at Lockheed Martin and NASA will lead the new Advanced Manufacturing degree program at Colorado School of Mines.

Craig Brice, currently a senior research scientist with the Advanced Technology Center at Lockheed Martin Space, will join the university in July as program director and professor of practice. He will teach two of the program’s four core courses, Introduction to Additive Manufacturing and Additive Manufacturing of Solid Materials.

Launching this fall, the interdisciplinary Advanced Manufacturing program will offer professional graduate certificates and non-thesis master’s degrees, as well as undergraduate minors and areas of special interest. Instruction will focus on additive manufacturing and data-driven process design and optimization, technologies that are rapidly maturing in the aerospace, automotive, defense, biomedical and energy industries both locally and worldwide.

“We are really excited that Craig Brice is joining the Mines faculty – he has been active in the metals additive manufacturing field for 20 years and is a pillar of the community. He has led certification programs for additively manufactured titanium parts for the Lockheed Martin F-35 program, advised national policy and programs and earned his PhD while working in industry,” said Aaron Stebner, Rowlinson Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and executive director of the Alliance for the Development of Additive Processing Technologies (ADAPT) at Mines. “Craig has decades of firsthand experience with the type of training that professionals need to advance the industry – he knows what professional students need as they go back for further training.”

Brice has spent his entire career working in additive manufacturing, particularly from the materials and processing side. At Lockheed Martin, Brice focused on metallic additive manufacturing and materials research and development for a variety of spaceflight applications. Prior to moving to Colorado, Brice worked at the NASA Langley Research Center in Virginia in its Advanced Materials and Processing Branch and at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics’ Advanced Development Programs in Fort Worth, Texas.

“The timing is right for a curriculum like this,” Brice said. “Over the past three to five years, additive manufacturing has really exploded as big companies like Lockheed Martin and GE have made sizable investments to try to streamline processes, reduce cost and improve performance. But there’s not a great talent pool that is knowledgeable about these additive processes – how to design with them, what it means for the materials, how to qualify parts for use. Students coming out of school with exposure to that will be one step ahead of everyone else.”

Brice previously taught at Mines as an adjunct professor, leading the new program’s pilot course, Introduction to Additive Manufacturing, twice over the past two years. He was a founding member of ADAPT and will rejoin the ADAPT board as its industry relations director. Brice holds a bachelor of science degree in metallurgical engineering from Missouri University of Science & Technology, a master of science in materials science and engineering from The Ohio State University and a PhD in mechanical engineering from the University of Canterbury.

“I’m excited to be joining Colorado School of Mines as it launches one of the first graduate training programs in advanced manufacturing in the U.S.,” Brice said. “There’s a huge demand in industry for people with even basic knowledge of these techniques – it’s a different way of thinking about how to go about manufacturing goods. If you’ve been doing it the conventional way, it’s time to adjust to the new paradigm.”

New Advanced Manufacturing Degree Program at Mines

Colorado School of Mines is proud to announce the Fall 2018 launch of a brand-new interdisciplinary degree program in Advanced Manufacturing!

The program will include a 12-credit-hour Professional Graduate Certificate, designed to give working professionals a competitive edge in the advanced manufacturing space with in-depth knowledge and practical application of additive manufacturing techniques and principles, structural materials for AM, statistical and machine learning tools for data-driven materials manufacturing, and designing parts for AM methods. The four required courses for the Professional Graduate Certificate will initially be offered on campus (morning or evening time slots).

Another option for graduates is the 30-credit-hour Master of Science, Non-Thesis (MSNT) degree. In addition to taking the core courses that form the basis for the Certificate, MSNT students will be able to specialize in one of two current tracks (Additive Manufacturing of Solid Materials and Data-Driven Materials Manufacturing) by choosing complementary electives from a list that spans seven departments at Mines.

Two options for undergraduates round out the program: a Minor and an Area of Special Interest.

The program’s strength is grounded in the expertise of Mines professors from Mechanical Engineering, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Physics, and Applied Mathematics and Statistics. Additionally, Mines has committed approximately $1M in a brand-new teaching lab and teaching-designed platforms to offer students hands-on access to cutting-edge AM technology.

Read the Mines press release here.

Contact the interim program director, Aaron Stebner, for more details.

TMS–MForesight workshop report available for download

ADAPT founding members Craig Brice of Lockheed Martin Space Systems and Bryce Meredig of Citrine Informatics were among the 40 leading expert participants in the TMS–MForesight workshop on Harnessing Materials Innovations to Support Next Generation Manufacturing Technologies in October 2017 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Craig Brice also served on the workshop organizing committee.

The goal of the interactive, professionally facilitated workshop was to forecast and brainstorm opportunity areas and enabling technologies related to materials science and engineering innovations that are likely to impact the next wave of U.S. manufacturing. The ideas generated by this workshop are documented in Harnessing Materials Innovations to Support Next Generation Manufacturing Technologies, available for free download through TMS. In addition to presenting thought-provoking insights into the potential future of manufacturing innovation, this technical report outlines actionable pathways and tactics identified to reach that future. This project was organized by TMS, on behalf of MForesight: Alliance for Manufacturing Foresight.

MForesight: Alliance for Manufacturing Foresight is a federally-funded consortium focused on enhancing U.S. manufacturing competitiveness by providing insights to decision makers on emerging technology trends and related priorities to inform policy and investments in advanced manufacturing. For information on events, projects, and activities, please visit the MForesight website.